On Friday 27 January 2023, at about 8:15pm, a Palestinian terrorist murdered seven people outside a synagogue in Neve Yaakov, a neighbourhood of Jerusalem.
This was a cold-blooded, inexcusable, and targeted terrorist attack against innocent civilians. Yet whenever Jews are murdered just for being Jews – the media has a long history of twisting events or making excuses for the terrorists that set out to kill them.
This is the kind of reporting the recent massacre has seen:
The New York Times runs with a ‘fear of escalation’, using the slaughter of Jews as a means to attack the current Israeli government. In another example of twisted reporting, CNN writes about the Israeli army action against Islamic Jihad terrorists that took place the day before – without even mentioning the targets were radical Islamic terrorists belonging to proscribed terrorist groups. An unforgivable description of ‘tit-for-tat’, equating Israel defending itself, with the brutal slaughter of Jews outside a synagogue.
Media excuses
Following this attack we even saw stories about the terrorist’s grandfather, who may have been killed by Israelis 28 years ago. All in an attempt to turn the finger of blame for the killing – back on to the Israelis themselves. When Jews die – it is the Jews fault.
None of this makes sense. Just two months ago on November 23, there was a twin bombing at a bus stop in Jerusalem that killed two Jews. What did that have to do with the Israeli action in Jenin on January 6? Or the killing of Khairy Alkam in 1998?
But when Jews die, the excuses are always rolled out. Let me use attacks in Jerusalem to travel back in time to show you what I mean.
Please note – these are only provided as a few examples. There are 100s of incidents not listed below, and 1000’s more attacks that were not in Jerusalem.
2014
On 8 November 2014, two terrorists entered a synagogue, in the Har Nof neighbourhood of Jerusalem, and attacked those praying with axes, knives, and a gun. Five died instantly, another died a year later from his injuries. The BBC reported on it by spending time talking about Israel’s ‘harsh’ response and ‘weeks of unrest’ (the tit for tat excuse again). What was even worse was the analysis beneath their report:
Personally, I would have thought that a mention of extremist Muslims carrying out 100s of ‘Islamist terror attacks’ globally would form part of any rational analysis in 2014, but that was too much to expect from the BBC. Instead, we are told that there is a long standing tradition in Jerusalem, and religious Jews are trying to change it. Ergo, the finger of blame over dead Jews is once again pointed at the behaviour of the Jews themselves.
There were other murderous attacks in Jerusalem in late 2014 and early 2015 (examples 1,. 2,). Many news reports suggested that Arab anger following the 2014 Gaza conflict was also responsible for the wave of violence.
2000-2005
Back in September 2000 there was no ‘war on Gaza’ to make the Arabs angry. Instead there was Yasser Arafat’s rejection of a peace offer. The Arabs had been preparing for an outbreak of violence and chose to throw away all prospects for peace. Between 2000 and 2005 over 1000 Israelis were killed:
In these reports of Jews being slaughtered in Jerusalem it is possible to see fake claims of a massacre (top left, Telegraph 13/4/02), a focus on Israeli ‘revenge’ (Guardian 5/9/01), and even a claim (also the Guardian) that Jews had driven the poor terrorist to despair.
For the most part though, the 1000+ Jewish deaths were blamed on Ariel Sharon walking on Temple Mount. It is difficult to find a report of the Second Intifada that doesn’t blame Sharon’s Jewish foot for all the Jews that were killed.
1993-1996
In the 1990s, Ariel Sharon’s foot had not yet walked on Temple Mount. It is the height of the Oslo Peace Process, and ‘hope’ fills the air. Jerusalem’s streets are once again running with Jewish blood:
Yes, you read that right. As innocent civilians are blow apart on a Jerusalem bus by radical Islamic terrorists, the NYT actually leads with the ‘revenge’ claim – over the death of a terrorist who made bombs. (This was one of two deadly bus bombings in Jerusalem in early 1996). Can you EVER imagine the NYT reporting on an Islamist terror attack in New York, Paris or London with a ‘revenge’ excuse in the headline about allied action taken against ISIS terrorists?
Jerusalem 1990
In 1990 the Jews surely had nothing to fear, because the Hamas bomber has not yet been killed. Yet on 21 Oct 1990, during the first ‘Intifada’ 18 year old Iris Azueli was repeatedly stabbed by a Palestinian terrorist in Jerusalem. Having killed her the terrorist then stabbed to death two other Israelis, Charlie Shalush and Eli Alterez. A 13-year-old boy was also hurt but luckily survived. This Daily Telegraph’s headline about the incident didn’t concern itself much with the attack – rather they were worried about how the Jews would respond. The label of ‘young’ in the headline is just the icing on the propaganda cake:
The first paragraph opens with news about the ‘pendulum swinging’, to make sure nobody feels to sorry for the Israelis. The second tells the reader that the terrorist struck ‘in revenge’ for the death of Arabs. The third paragraph talks about Jewish extremists. The article eventually gets round to mentioning the attack itself (in which three Jews were brutally slain in the street) in the eighth paragraph.
The reasoning is clear. Once again the Jews only had themselves to blame.
Before the Intifadas
The NYT goes out of its way to write about *five* Palestinians who object to a brutal bus bombing that has murdered four Israelis. Most articles on anti-Jewish violence at the time were simply using the war in Lebanon, or the 1967 ‘occupation’ as excuses for all the Jews being murdered.
Another example, this time from 1968, as Jews in Jerusalem suffered from a campaign of bombing attacks:
All the usual elements have been included, such as the ‘revenge’ excuse, and angry Jews shouting ‘kill the Arabs’. In this headline the Arabs are just ‘blamed’ for the attack, even though they have clearly taken responsibility.
Jerusalem 1950s
So let us go back to 1956 – when there was no ‘occupation’ to blame. This next one sounds familiar – an attack on a synagogue near Jerusalem that killed four Jews.
Between 1949 and 1967, much of the media spent their time excusing the murder of Jews in Jerusalem by referencing the frustration the Arabs felt because of the ‘Palestinian refugees’. Just to make sure Jews elsewhere are not left out – the Guardian (courtesy of a statement by the Archbishop of York) even managed to blame American Jews for all the troubles:
1947
Back in1947 there were no refugees yet to blame. Instead, the New York Times justifies the ‘stoning and stabbing of Jews’ by letting us know that the partition plan was to blame for the latest round of ‘dead Jews’:
That partition created so much ‘anger’ that the Arabs started a civil war rather than choose to create their own state. This was followed by ‘angry’ Arab nations sending their Arab armies to try to kill even more Jews. The Arabs lost the war but did manage to wipe out 1% of the Jewish population.
Jerusalem 1936
Back in the 1930s there was no partition plan to drive the Arabs to kill. There were no ‘settlements’ and no ‘occupation’ yet either. But Jews were still being slaughtered in Jerusalem’s streets:
These four reports are all from the New York Times between 1933 and 1937. As can be seen from the first example, the reason these Jews were being killed was because of ‘Jewish immigration’ – the simple fact that they wanted to live there. The final example actually has a headline of Arabs murdering ‘Zionists’. Stunning.
Jerusalem 1929
Back in 1929, there was almost no immigration, yet still Jews were still being slaughtered:
This is a very ‘British’ manner of reporting. The Mufti’s (the Arab leader of Jerusalem who 12 years later would sit down with Hitler to discuss their common cause) claimed that Jews died because they provoked the Arabs. The events are even described by the Guardian as a ‘controversy’ between Jewish and Arab elements. In a manner that would clearly resonate with 1929 antisemitic Europe – the Mufti even blames Jewish ‘ambition and greed’.
By the time this article had been written, 133 Jews had been slaughtered – in massacres at Hebron, Tzfat, Yafo, and of course Jerusalem.
1928
Editor’s note: The birth of Ariel Sharon. His foot cannot be held responsible for the death of any Jewish person before this date.
1920
The Mufti had not yet made up his lies about the Jews taking control of the Temple Mount, but for some reason, Jews were still being killed on Jerusalem’s streets:
The official reason (rather than the lie in the newspaper report about Jews attacking them) given for Arabs killing Jews during the 1920 Nebi Mousa festival was ‘Arab disappointment at the non-fulfilment of the promises of independence’.
Jerusalem 1910
Things that did not exist in 1910. The ‘security fence’, the ‘siege on Gaza’, ‘settlements’, ‘occupation’ ‘Sharon’s foot’, and ‘refugees’. Back in 1910 there was no British Mandate. The British had not yet even arrived and there had been no ‘Balfour Declaration’. The region is under Ottoman rule. Yet the Jews who live there are ‘still in danger’:
This story is fascinating. The women were shot at and wounded. But nobody would do a thing because if anyone acted against the shooter, the Muslims would riot and massacre a few Jews – as they ‘always’ did – whether the Jews ‘had any connection with the trouble or not’. This is the classic image of Jewish life under Islamic rule. (There is probably little need to also point out that the descendants of the culprit – an ‘Afghan watchman’ who had no doubt recently immigrated to a prospering area – are referred to in today’s media as indigenous Palestinians who have lived in the land since forever.)
There is no attempt here to provide a justification for the ‘excitement’ amongst the Muslims that led to the killing of Jews, but perhaps today, some would put it down to the rise of Zionism.
1869
So we go back to before the modern Zionist movement. Even before the Ottoman’s banned Jews from arriving in Jerusalem in the late 19th century – back into the days when Jews knew their place as third-class citizens, paid money to permit a once-a-week visit to their holy sites, and lived under 100s of degrading Islamic laws. And for some reason, we find that Jews in Jerusalem are still subject to murderous violence:
Or this example in 1847. This one is a beauty – because the journalists do give us the excuse for how it began – Jews had been ‘bleeding’ a Christian child for their celebration of Passover. The classic blood libel.
And even further back to 1834, we find Jews are dying and facing barbarities – committed by ‘Arabs’ – ‘too shocking to relate’:
Timeless
The story is clear. Jews are attacked because they are Jews. Excuses are created by grabbing at whatever is lying conveniently around to blame. Looking at the history – this is an obvious truth.
My question to today’s media is a simple one. Do your journalists have access to your own archives? And the natural follow up – if they do, why are they not using them because all the evidence they need is inside them? Jews are murdered simply because they are Jews. And in Jerusalem it is chiefly because Muslim extremists are supremacists who see Jews as legitimate targets – as a people without a right to live.
Isn’t it about time – finally – when your newspapers start telling the truth?
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And we must never forget the massacres and ethnic cleansing of the Jews of Arabian Peninsula in the time of Muhammad. The area of the Arabian Peninsula, except for Yemen, has been ‘Juden frei’ or Jew free since then.
So much for Jews being blamed for their victim hood; the Jews have always been used as an excuse by the Jew haters and Antisemites that they they blame and attack Jews to hide their own feelings of jealousy and inadequacies.
Same as the rapist and/or wife beater blaming the victim for their suffering and abuse
David, grow up.
When you invade someone else’s land using force and murder, subjugate the inhabitants, and continue to kill them on an almost daily basis, do you expect them to welcome you with open arms? If so, you are a fool.
Jack T
Grow up, get off the anti Israelbandwagon and stop parroting idiotic propaganda. It was never their land. The Arabs rejected the partition with 5 Arab armies launching a genocidal war against the Jews and lost and then spent 70 years,lying about it with useful idiots and and antisemites supporting a fake ’cause’ . The Oalestinians of today were an invention of the KGB and Arafat. Why are you commenting on a subject you clearly know nothing about.
…is it just to bash Jews?
> When you invade someone else’s land using force and murder, subjugate the inhabitants, and continue to kill them on an almost daily basis, do you expect them to welcome you with open arms? If so, you are a fool.
Jack shiT, nice capsule summary of Supremacist, Imperialist, Jihadist Islam waging Jihad All Over The World. See 9/11, London’s 7/7, Mumbai, …
But NO MORE. Israel is NOT the unarmed Jews of Khybar, Jerusalem, Tel Aviv, …
Happy Eternal Nakba to you and Ham-Ass, Hezbola, Islamofascist Shia Iran, Grand Muftis, Ayatoolas, Sheikhs, Wahabis, Al Qada, ISIS!
Hello Jack.
You baited the hook nicely today and got a fair few nibbles at your nasty provocation. Now I wanna play too.
Don’t think Dave was doin’ much invading in 1946 but those Jews that survived the Nazis and got off the boat in Haifa and Tel Aviv looking for safe haven, who do you reckon they were invading, Britain? If so, are you saying you want it back?
Exactly when did Israel invade “their land”??? At what point in history did “palestinians” ever enjoy sovereignty over ANY land?. Israelis do not kill anyone on a continuing basis, they defend themselves on a continuing basis. The only ones killing muslimes are muslimes themselves, something they have been doing with great success for the last 1400 years ever since that filthy mo-ham-head reared his ugly head. Go get a life man..
JackT
Once again you didn’t read and/or comprehend the article.
The killing of Jews in the MENA region region by the Muslims/Arabs has been going on for centuries.
The only thing that changes is the excuses that are proffered to justify the killings and murders of Jews.
Your obsession with Jews is just another form of Antisemitism
We Jews got our country back
😊
The Jew haters might not like it but who cares ?
Let them try to take our country off us if they want it so much
It will not end well for them….
😉
Richard, I did read the article and comprehend much more than you think. Those killed, whether Jews, or of any other religion, are people first and followers second. What you need to grasp, is that in this day and age, NO ONE should be getting killed because of religious obsessions. All of David’s posts, whether about the past or the present, are an attempt to justify the illegal colonisation of Palestine by Zionists. My ‘obsession’, as you put it, is not about Jews, it is about Zionists and their dehumanisation of others so that they can ignore their suffering. Ring any bells???
Oh Jack, bless. Reading is one thing , comprehending is another. Richard clearly read and managed to comprehend what was written, you on the other hand,,,,
You are right that nobody should be getting killed because of religious obsessions. Unfortunately, we live in the real world – and in this real world, 100,000s of people are killed each year – most because of sectarian or religious fighting. Saying ‘nobody should’ is pointless. 100,000s are. Another obvious truth when looking at the 100,000s who die is that minority groups suffer most. It is also true that the vast majority of people who are murdered because of their religion each year are murdered by Islamists (and yes, they slaughter Muslims too – just ask the Ahmadis) . These are all facts.
You don’t need to accept the facts. If you want you can continue to spout nonsense, but it won’t change what the facts actually are.
Now Jews – are a minority group. They are a quintissential minority group – and they were oppressed everywhere. Both in Christian and Islamic lands. If Jews had not created Israel – they would be like the Yazidis or 100s of other minority groups still persecuted. Tragically, in Europe, 6 million of them were wiped out.
So basically, I really do not care what you think. I know how the world works. You clearly don’t. I know my history – you clearly don’t. And I would rather Israel exists and have people like you whine than live in a world without Israel.
David, you (and your ‘congregation’) demonstrate clearly that Avigail Abarbanel was correct when she said Zionism is a form of mental illness, believing Zionists have rights which do not exist. But it’s even worse than that, they also believe there are others whose land and homes they have stollen, who have no rights at all.
Just regurgitating the same nonsense isn’t going to get you anywhere with me. I’ll ignore your ‘stolen land’ nonsense. The Jews didn’t ‘steal’ anything, and they lost far more land in the MENA region (that was stolen from them) than there is in all of Israel. You are just spouting ridiculous anti-Zionist propaganda. And ‘Zionists’ are just people who believe that Israel has a right to exist. Given today’s reality – I’d argue that it is obviously anti-Zionists who have the mental illness, and as Israel’s destruction (which aint going to happen) would be one involving massacres on a catastrophiic scale, it is a mental illness wrapped up in a clearly demonic dislike of the Jews.
David, “Reading is one thing , comprehending is another”. Correct, I didn’t say anything about Jews, Palestinian land was/is stolen by Zionists who had no connection with the Holy Land. Your ploy to justify Zionist hegemony, is to hitch your arguments to historic Jewish suffering. By doing so, you hope to draw aprobrium to Jews, thereby creating antiSemitism. Zionism needs and feeds off antiSemitism to continue its evil intents.
Mr T, are you not embarassed by your ignorance?
The article makes it clear that Muslims were killing Jews long before your imaginary palestinians had their imaginery lands stolen from them. Its thoroughly boring to hear the same anti-Jewish/semitic/Zionist lying rubbish continually brought up just like the newspaper article that Jews were trying to kill a Christian to bake their matzah. I don’t know who or what you are but whose land did Lee Rigby steal to get murdered and decapitated in the street? Whether Christian, Jewish, Muslim or Hindu, they are out to get you and you’ll never be safe. Your women will be raped and murdereddespite that they never stole anyones land any more than the thousands of Rochdale girls who were abused did.
You may find this of interest:-
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oiVFGmCKEAA
Yes of course Jacky lad
Your obsession with the world’s only Jewish state and your compulsive hatred of its supporters clearly demonstrates how well balanced you are mentally which undoubtedly entitles you to pass judgement on others’ mental health?
😄😝😜🤪
Now should we start calling you Doctor Jack ??
😂
Jack T
‘When people criticize Zionists, they mean Jews. You are talking antisemitism’.
Martin Luther King, Jr.
Ring any bells???
Jack T
It’s actually the other way around. The “Palestinians” illegally occupy Israeli land that they have no entitlement to. And they are absolutely unwilling to live peacefully with the land’s indigenous Jewish population. The “Palestinians” seek to colonize Israel “from the river to the sea”.
It’s antisemitism and xenophobia. Arabs were not happy about sharing lands that they now occupied with an indigenous population that returned from the diaspora to liberate their ancestral homeland. They saw this as a threat to their cultural hegemony and dominance. Especially as the Jews started making improvements to Israel to make it more liveable. When the Jews starting draining the swamps and ridding the land of malaria, Arab ideologues started coming to the land to spread hatred and vitriol against the land’s indigenous Jewish population.
Jack T, You understand far less than you believe. You clearly have no idea what you are talking about and are parroting current antisemitic propaganda. Just your statement referring to ‘illegal colonization of Palestine by Zionists’ exposes you as someone unacquainted factual history. Then your ridiculous claim laying blame for death by ‘religious obsession’ and ‘dehumanization’ at the feet of the Jews exposes you as nothing more than a bigoted, antisemitic whack-a-doodle.
> blame for death by ‘religious obsession’ and ‘dehumanization’
That’s why airports screen passengers and their luggage and cargo for bombs – to prevent another 9/11, Pan Am 103, sneaker and underwear bombers by Islamofascists.
Too right Edward. We aren’t submitted to inhumanrights searches when we travel because of a concern from Jewish terrorists.
JackT ( does the T stand for tosser by any chance)
As I have said before, Judaism by its very nature is Zionist, from Abraham going on his pilgrimage to Zion, Moses leading the Isralites/Hebrews from Egypt to Israel and Zion, the Jews forcibly taken to Babylon returning to Jerusalem and Zion, and it goes on.
I was reading in Shul this past Saturday in the Torah written over two thousand years ago calling for G-d to take us back to Eretz Israel, the land of Israel
The Land of Israel was conquered and colonised by the Arabs/Muslims that came up from the Arabian Peninsula in the 7th and 8th Centuries AD
My letter published in the Jewish Telegraph.
Double standards and bias in media coverage of terror attacks
Terrorist attacks in Europe have received unequivocal condemnation in the Western world – and rightly so. Unfortunately, these public expressions of collective outrage and condemnation of terror attacks are selective and influenced by political bias, with double standards applied to Israel. Nowhere is this more apparent than in the biased western media coverage of the recent terror attack in Jerusalem, where innocent Israeli men, women and children were gunned down by terrorists as they were going in to a synagogue for prayers. News outlets lost no time in describing the terrorists as ‘alleged’ terrorists or even ‘freedom fighters’, with references to the ‘settlements’, as if to justify the murder of these innocent civilians and blame the victims.
Using this tragedy to push an anti Israel narrative, even as Israelis are burying their loved ones and as Palestinians are handing out candy to celebrate these murders, not only breaches journalistic codes and principles of objectivity and impartiality, but is utterly heartless, inhumane and morally bankrupt. Worse, attempting to draw a moral equivalence between the terrorists and innocent victims, is irresponsible journalism and emboldens Palestinian terrorists to commit further murderous attacks on innocent Israeli civilians.
‘As the French priest Patrick Desbois—the man who worked in Ukraine for decades locating and marking mass graves of more than a million Jews murdered during the Holocaust has said—“it is the propaganda that allows for the worst to take place.”
What happened to ‘Never Again’?
Sharp observations on the media agenda Hana.
In terms of the house trolls here, in the 9 years I’ve been popping into this section, a lot of Jacks have come and gone. The shelf life is normally around 18 months to 2 years until they run out of steam. Most if not all get rumbled as nutjob antisemites eventually when they lose concentration and out themselves for what they are.
One guy, Chris something or other declared before his final flounce that he came here “to find whatever stick he could to beat the Jew over the head”. Another, Michael admitted that his motivation for posting was to prevent people being sympathetic to Jews and Israel. He hated it when the Holocaust was mentioned; always a lose-lose for the jew-haters. The current Jack is cut from the same cloth. He has no skin in the game but sees this section as an opportunity to be provocative to diaspora Jews with the sort of toss that you have already spotted above. Imagine that being your life.
Jack T
‘I read that Goebbels, Hitler’s Nazi propagandist, was sort of messed up because of a crippled foot he got as a child due to polio. This sort of made him feel a sense of being physical inadequate that bothered him throughout his life. …. Some people claimed in the books I read that Goebbels had his own intellectual self-hatred and inferiority complexes that led to his rage, despair and hatred of the Jews.’
Sound familiar??
Jack T
‘I read that Goebbels, (Hitler’s Nazi propagandist), was sort of messed up because of a crippled foot he got as a child due to polio. This sort of made him feel a sense of being physical inadequate that bothered him throughout his life. …. Some people claimed in the books I read that Goebbels had his own intellectual self-hatred and inferiority complexes that led to his rage, despair and hatred of the Jews.’
Sound familiar??
Hey DC, you do your readers a disservice by giving them a very lopsided and distorted picture of history. At least your version anyway.
✡️ 🙏 ✡️
You are not Jewish – you are a toxic troll and you are no longer welcome putting your antisemitic venom onto these pages. I allowed this one through just so I could post this response as a reminder.
That’s your cue to crawl back to the sewers you belong in, troll.
For the record there is no such thing as “Palestinian land”
No independent country called Palestine has ever existed at any point in history
Ever
And since when are Arabic speaking Arabs from the Arabian Peninsula the indigenous peoples of what is a Hebrew speaking country?
🤔
JackT (is T standing for tosser)
How long did it take to unravel yourself from the knots you’ve tied yourself in.
This last little posting of yours doesn’t really make too much sense other than to seemingly accuse Jews of being responsible for formenting Antisemitism; there is a term been coined for when Antisemites accuse Jews of that, its called ‘THE LIVINGSTON FORMULA’.
Your obsession with Jews is why I call you an Antisemite, and you prove the point in most of the posts you make
Most people regard violence in aggression as wrong but violence in defense as righteous. The liberal view of violence is 180 degrees reverse: aggression is OK, but defense is wrong. Liberals go to great lengths to obscure their views, but it comes out when liberal reporters rationalize, minimize, sanitize aggressor violence.
Yo Jack(off), is it really so hard to understand…..Arabs are from ARABIA, and Jews are from JUDEA. Get it? In truth if you are so worried about colonization you should know that the most prolific colonizers in history are the Arabs that went streaming out of Arabia in order to conquer the world in Muhhamid’s(spit) name. EVERY Arab country NOT on the Arabia Peninsula has been conquered and colonized, with their true indigenous Peoples having been either ethnically cleansed or totally subjugated.
Learn history before you open your ignorant trap.